The Saudi Dental Journal (2010) 22, 177181

King Saud University

The Saudi Dental Journal

www.ksu.edu.sa
www.sciencedirect.com

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The eect of commonly used types of coee on surface

microhardness and color stability of resin-based
composite restorations
Wedad Y. Awliya a,*, Deemah J. Al-Alwani b, Eftekar S. Gashmer b,
Huda B. Al-Mandil b
a
Department of Restorative Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, King Saud University, P.O. Box 5967,
Riyadh 11432, Saudi Arabia
b
Intern, College of Dentistry, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia

Received 3 October 2009; revised 3 January 2010; accepted 7 June 2010

Available online 17 July 2010

KEYWORDS
Color stability;
Resin-based;
Composite;
Restoration

Abstract Objective: This study assessed the inuence of commonly used types of coffee, in Saudi
Arabia, on surface microhardness and color stability of microhybrid resin-based composite (Filtek
Z250), nanolled resin-based composite (Filtek Supreme) and organic modied ceramic composite
(Ormocer).
Materials and methods: A total of 75 disk-shaped specimens were fabricated (25 discs from each
type of material). After initial color and microhardness recording, samples were randomly divided
into ve groups (n = 5). Four groups of specimens from each material were immersed in 1 of 4
types of coffee (American, Arabic, Turkish and Espresso coffee) and the fth group was stored
in saline to serve as control. The specimens were immersed in the different types of coffee for
3 weeks. At the end of the test period, surface microhardness and color were measured again.
Results: It was observed that there is no signicant difference in microhardness of the three tested
materials after immersion in the different types of coffee. However, all resin-based materials showed
signicant color change when compared to control (saline). Filtek Z250 showed the least color

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +966 014784511.

E-mail address: wawliya@hotmail.com (W.Y. Awliya).
1013-9052 2010 King Saud University. All rights reserved. Peerreview under responsibility of King Saud University.
doi:10.1016/j.sdentj.2010.07.008

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178

W.Y. Awliya et al.

change among the three materials followed by Ormocer. On the other hand, Filtek Supreme was the
most common material prone to discoloration. Espresso coffee caused the most change in color followed by Turkish then American coffee. Nevertheless, Arabic coffee caused the least color change
of the three materials.
Conclusions: Color stability of resin-based materials is affected by their different material composition.
2010 King Saud University. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The increasing demands for esthetics coupled with outstanding development of adhesive dentistry has resulted in an
increasingly wide spread of resin-based composites as restorative materials. Despite the development in the composition
and characteristics of these restorative materials, restorations
in the oral cavity are subjected to a number of conditions
that may cause changes in the physical and mechanical
properties of these restorations, such as color and microhardness per se. Thereby, undermining the quality of the restoration and eventually necessitating replacement (Tyas,
2005).
One of the factors that may affect the quality of the restorations is the consumption of certain beverages such as coffee,
tea, soft drinks, alcoholic beverages and even uoridated water
(Vogal, 1975). The effect of these beverages on color and
microhardness of composite resin materials varies depending
on the intrinsic features of the composite, such as their chemical composition (Gaintantzopoulou et al., 2005).
Scotti et al. (1997) simulated the oral condition by immersing resin-based specimens in synthetic saliva combined with
coffee, tea or chlorhexidine in a dark environment at 37 C.
Their results showed that synthetic saliva and coffee produced
the greatest darkening and the type of the materials used was
also a signicant factor in stain-resistant. Ertas et al. (2006)
stated that discoloration by coffee was due to absorption of
colorants by the tested materials.
This study was conducted to assess the effect of commonly
used types of coffee, in Saudi Arabia, on surface microhardness and color stability of microhybrid resin-based composite,
nanolled resin-based composite and organic modied ceramic
resin materials.
2. Materials and methods
The three resin-based composite materials used in this study
are shown in Table 1. Seventy-ve specimens (shade A2) were
prepared from the three materials (25 from each). The resin
materials were injected into round Teon mold (11 mm in
diameter and 2 mm deep), covered with Mylar strip and
pressed between glass plates. After 10 s curing with a wide
tipped Prismatic curing unit (LD Caulk/Dentsply Int.), the

Table 1

top glass plate was removed in order to have the tip of the curing light closer to the samples. Each specimen was polymerized
for another 30 s. Afterwards, all specimens were stored in saline for 24 h at 37 C to ensure complete polymerization. Specimens of each material were then divided randomly into ve
groups of ve specimens each. Baseline surface microhardness
and color of all groups were recorded before immersion in different types of coffee.
2.1. Specimens treatment
Specimens from each material were divided into four groups
according to the four different types of coffee as shown in
Table 2. Each type of coffee was prepared according to manufacturers instruction. Specimens were then immersed in containers containing 10 ml of each type of coffee for 3 weeks.
The different coffee types were prepared fresh daily before
the staining procedure. The fth group of specimen from each
material was stored in10 ml of saline to serve as control. After
3 weeks surface microhardness and color of all the specimens
were recorded again.
2.2. Color testing
Color of the specimens was measured using Color Eye 7000
spectrophotometer (Gretag Macbetch, New Windsor, NY,
USA); against a white background using CIELAB color space
relative to CIE standard illuminant D65. Color of specimens
before and after immersion in the different types of the coffee
was measured according to the following formula:
h
i1=2
DE Lo  LI 2 ao  aI 2 bo  bI 2
DE* = color change, L* = luminance reectance, a* = redgreen color coordinate, b* = yellow-blue color coordinate,
o = baseline, I = after treatment.
2.3. Microhardness testing
Vickers microhardness measurements were done using a
Micromet Buehler Microhardness tester (Buehler Company,
41 Waukegan Road, Lack Bluff Illinois, USA). The specimens
were individually xed in the apparatus and positioned in such
a way that the specimen surface was perpendicular to the

Types of restorative materials used in the study.

Material

Description

Lot #

Manufacturer

Filtek Z250
Filtek Supreme
Ormocer (Admira)

Microhybrid resin-based composite

Nano lled resin-based composite
Organic modied ceramic resin-based composite

2,007,021
20,060,613
742,025

3M Dental Products, St. Paul, MN, USA

Voco GMBH, Germany

The effect of commonly used types of coffee on surface microhardness

indenter. A load of 300 g was applied to the surface of each
specimen for 30 s. Three indentations were made, on top surfaces of each specimen. These indentations were equally placed
over a circle and not closer than 1 mm to the adjacent ones or
to the margin of the specimens. The average of the three readings was taken and microhardness values were calculated. Preand post-staining microhardness measurements were done on
the same surface of each specimen (top surface).
2.4. Statistical analysis
Color change DE* data and microhardness values were analyzed by one-way, two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA)
and Post Hoc Tukeys test at 0.05 signicance level to compare
between the different groups.
Three different intervals were used for distinguishing color
differences. Values of DE* < 1 were regarded as not appreciable by the human eye. Value of DE* < 3.3 were considered
perceptible by skilled operators, but considered clinically
acceptable, while value DE* > 3.3 were considered perceptible
also by non-skilled persons and for that reason it is clinically
not acceptable (Ayad, 2007; Johnston, 2009).
3. Results
3.1. Color
The mean and standard deviation values of color change DE*
of the specimens after immersion in the different types of coffee for each of the composite resin materials used in the study
are summarized in Table 3 and Fig. 1.
Two-way ANOVA showed that both the restorative materials and types of coffee were signicant factors to change color (P = 0.000 for both). Signicant interaction was also found
between the restorative materials and the different types of coffee (P = 0.000).
All the three resin-based composite materials showed significant color change after immersion in three types of coffee
(Espresso, Turkish and American) DE* > 3.3. Z250 resinbased composite showed the least color change followed by
Ormocer. However, there was no signicant difference between the two materials. Nevertheless, Filtek Supreme showed
signicantly the least color stability among the three resin-

Figure 1 DE color change of the three resin-based materials after

immersion in the different types of coffee.

Table 2

179
Types of coffee used.

Coee

Manufacturer

Espresso
Turkish coee
American coee
Arabic coee

Joerys
Joerys
Joerys
AL Rifai

based composite materials. Espresso coffee caused the most

signicant color change in the three resin-based composites
followed by Turkish and American coffee, with no signicant
difference between the latter two. Arabic coffee, on the other
hand, did not cause any change in color of the three resinbased composite materials. Samples immersed in the Arabic
coffee have no signicant color change from those immersed
in Saline (control).
3.2. Microhardness
The results of microhardness testing are shown in Table 4.
One-way ANOVA indicated no signicant difference in
microhardness of the three resin-based materials used in this
study before and after the immersion in the different types of
coffee.
Two-way ANOVA indicated that only the type of composite resin material was signicant (P = 0.000). The Type of the
coffee however was not a signicant factor to change surface
microhardness of the three resin-based materials (P = 0.602).
Also, no signicant interaction was found between the restorative materials and the types of coffee (P = 0.107).
4. Discussion
The present study addressed the problem of color stability of
modern resin-based composites by investigating their susceptibility to stains caused by commonly consumed types of coffee.
Discoloration can be evaluated visually and by using specied

Table 3 Mean color change of the three resin-based composite materials after immersion in the different type of coffee
(DE*).
Composite

Coee

Mean (SD)

Filtek Z250

American coee
Turkish coee
Arabic coee
Espresso
Saline

5.13
4.19
1.90
6.78
2.07

Filtek Supreme

American coee
Turkish coee
Arabic coee
Espresso
Saline

6.56 (1.58)*
9.62 (1.54)*
2.55 (0.84)
11.87(2.21)*
3.09 (0.27)

Ormocer

American coee
Turkish coee
Arabic coee
Espresso
Saline

4.86
4.81
1.60
7.68
2.57

Indicates that the color is clinically unacceptable.

(0.69)*
(1.81)*
(0.79)
(1.85)*
(0.79)

(1.63)*
(1.34)*
(0.98)
(2.15)*
(1.23)

180

W.Y. Awliya et al.

Table 4 Vickerss microhardness values of the three restorative materials before and after immersion in the different types
of coffee.
Material

Coee

Before (SD)

After (SD)

P-value

Z250

American coee
Turkish coee
Arabic coee
Espresso
Saline

77.38
79.96
79.62
79.90
79.90

77.30
75.76
74.58
73.48
78.08

0.207
0.736
0.095
0.832
0.198

(7.66)
(3.97)
(9.53)
(3.11)
(5.03)

(3.96)
(3.19)
(2.76)
(2.85)
(1.37)

Filtek
American coee
-Supreme
Turkish coee
Arabic coee
Espresso
Saline

70.60 (6.04)

65.62 (4.68) 0.602

69.24
70.52
69.18
69.62

(2.49)
(.80)
(3.45)
(19.86)

64.42
61.02
64.48
58.72

(4.82)
(7.78)
(4.93)
(7.11)

0.181
0.053
0.532
0.167

Ormocer

38.46
39.70
39.78
39.66
38.82

(5.33)
(1.62)
(4.95)
(4.24)
(3.89)

39.98
40.98
43.14
39.84
39.52

(1.15)
(2.32)
(2.22)
(2.05)
(2.17)

0.078
0.199
0.191
0.354
0.432

American coee
Turkish coee
Arabic coee
Espresso
Saline

All means before and after immersion in the different types of

coffee are not signicant at 0.05 signicant levels.

instruments such as Spectrophotometer, which can potentially

eliminate subjective errors in color assessment. It has also been
used in many previous studies to measure color change (DE*)
by comparing the values before and after treatment according
to the formula previously mentioned (Ayad, 2007; Johnston,
2009).
Discoloration of resin-based material may be caused by
intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The intrinsic factors involve
the discoloration of the resin material itself, as in the alteration
of the resin matrix and the interface of the matrix and llers.
This intrinsic discoloration may be due to insufcient polymerization or immersion in water for long periods. Extrinsic factors for discoloration include staining by adsorption or
absorption of colorants as a result of contamination from
exogenous sources such as coffee, tea, nicotine and beverages
(Vogal, 1975).
In this study the three resin-based materials showed significant color change after immersion in the three types of coffee
(American, Turkish and Espresso). Color of Z250 resin-based
material was the least affected by the immersion followed by
Ormocer. On the other hand, Filtek Supreme was the most resin material prone to discoloration. Staining susceptibility of
resin-based materials may be related to resin ller type, type
of resin matrix or type of the staining agent (Bagheri et al.,
2005; Canay and Cehreli, 2003). If the resin can absorb water,
then it is also able to absorb other uids, resulting in its discoloration. Water sorption occurs mainly as direct absorption in
the resin matrix. The glass ller particles cannot absorb water
into the bulk of the material, but can absorb water onto the
surface. Thus, the amount of water sorption is dependent on
the resin content of the composite material and the quality
of bond between the resin and the ller. Excessive water sorption may decrease the life of resin composite by expanding and
plasticizing the resin component, hydrolyzing the saline and
causing microcrack formation. As a result, the microcracks
or the interfacial gaps at the interface between ller and matrix
allow stain penetration and discoloration (Bagheri et al.,

2007). Therefore, the higher the resin content of a material,

the less its resistance to photolysis, photo-oxidation and water
sorption thus the more susceptible it is to staining. Z250 is a
microhybrid resin composite with ller loading of 60% by
vol. Ormocer contains inorganicorganic copolymers in addition to the inorganic silanated ller particles and the ller loading is 60% by vol. The low discoloration rate of Filtek Z250
and Ormocer is in all probability related to their high inorganic
content, which provides both materials with a lower water
sorption rate. Filtek Supreme is a nanolled composite which
contains aggregated zirconia/silica cluster llers of 520 nm
and non-aggregated 20 nm silica llers. Although Filtek Supreme has almost similar ller loading to the other two materials (59.5% by vol.), it has high susceptibility to stain. This
could be attributed to porosity in glass ller particles as discussed in other studies (Choi et al., 2005; Villalta et al., 2006).
It has also been established that the resin matrix used in
materials plays an important role in stain susceptibility.
UDM seems to be more stain-resistant than Bis-GMA (Kugel,
2000; Moszner et al., 2008). On the other hand, it was found
that water uptake in Bis-GMA-based resins increased from
3% to 6% as proportion of TEGDMA increased from 0%
to 1% (Khalachandra and Turner, 1987). Filtek Z250 and Filtek Supreme have similar resin matrix composition, with the
addition of TEGDMA to the resin matrix of Filtek Supreme
which explains the higher discoloration of Filtek Supreme.
Inorganicorganic copolymers of Ormocer with abundance
of polymerization opportunities in these materials allows
Ormocers to cure without leaving a residual monomer.
Surface microhardness of all resin-based materials used in
this study was not affected by immersion in any of the tested
types of coffee. Hardness as dened by OBrien (1997) is the
resistance of material to indentation, and it correlates well to
materials strength and rigidity (Anusavice, 1996). The material may become either harder or softer depending on several
factors such as the composition of the material, the storage
time and the storage media (Okada et al., 2001; Ellakuria
et al., 2003). In the present study the tested resin materials were
immersed in four types of coffee for three weeks. Although this
period of time caused signicant color change of the three resin
materials, it might not be long enough to cause any changes in
surface hardness.
This study revealed that Espresso and Turkish coffee are
the most types of coffee to cause change in the color of the
three resin-based materials followed by American coffee. Previous ndings revealed that coffee contains yellow colorants;
these colorants are eluted later (Ertas et al., 2006). Therefore,
discoloration from coffee was due to both adsorption and subsurface absorption of coffee colorant. The dark color and
concentration of coffee products (Espresso, Turkish and
American) might be reasons of color change in the present
study. On the other hand, light color and lower concentration
of Arabic coffee in relation to the other types of coffee, being
that Arabic coffee was prepared with more water, might be the
cause of less color change in the three resin materials. In addition, the Arabic coffee used in this study was prepared without
the addition of Saffron. In some regions of Saudi Arabia saffron is added to coffee, and in that situation discoloration
may be expected. However, further investigation is needed to
conrm this proposition.
The results obtained from this study have clinical relevance
and provide clinicians with information about the staining

The effect of commonly used types of coffee on surface microhardness

potential of these commonly used drinks on restorative materials. For instance, Filtek Supreme with its high susceptibility
for staining with coffee may not be an appropriate restorative
material with patients with high coffee consumption.
Immersion of the specimens in the different types of coffee
and absence of cleaning or brushing are signicant factors
affecting susceptibility to staining of the materials. However, actual staining in the oral cavity would very likely require a longer
period of time, because of the intermittent nature of coffee exposure. In addition, saliva and other uids will dilute staining media and restorations will also be polished by tooth brushing.
5. Conclusions
All resin-based materials showed signicant color change after
immersion in Espresso, Turkish and American coffee. Filtek
Z250 showed the least color change among the three materials
followed by Ormocer. On the other hand, Filtek Supreme was
the most material prone to discoloration.
Espresso coffee caused the most change in color followed
by Turkish and American coffee. Nevertheless, Arabic coffee
did not change the color of the three materials and samples immersed in this type of coffee showed no signicant color
change from control.
There was no signicant difference on surface microhardness of the three resin-based materials tested in this study before and after immersion in the different types of coffee.
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